‘I should think she will be punished enough by the loss of position and wealth. She is a proud woman, and it will be a bitter pill for her to swallow, this sudden descent in the social scale. Miss Marjory, I do really think that you may make your mind easy about the Belassis family. I think their sins will be well punished.’ ‘Well, I hope so, I’m sure; but I shall always say you let them off too easily.’ Tor certainly behaved generously towards a fallen foe, he and Maud together; but there was no doubt as to which was the active agent in all such matters. The valuation of the estate fell considerably short of the sum owed by Belassis to Maud; but he was not hardly dealt with when it was found that he was unable to make up the full amount. A compromise was effected; and he was even allowed to carry away into retirement the furniture, plate, glass, and china which belonged to Thornton House, and which might fairly have been claimed as compensation. Perhaps there was less generosity in this than some people supposed, but Maud Debenham’s magnanimity was greatly praised by all in the neighbourhood. Poor Matilda and Bertha Belassis were inconsolable, and were certainly to be pitied. They came up to Ladywell several times during the ‘turn-out,’ and shed oceans of salt tears, and quite distorted their rather plain faces by the utter abandonment of their grief. ‘Pity us, Maud! do pity us!’ they would say. ‘Fancy, shut up in a horrid little poky house—quite poor people we shall be—and always _with mamma_!’ this seemed the climax of horror, and Maud understood it only too well. It was a gleam of consolation when they learnt that London was to be their destination, and that their father intended going into business of some kind, to re-establish his fallen fortunes. Maud made the best of this in her attempt to comfort them. ‘You will like London ever so much: there will be such lots to see, and such heaps of people to make friends with; and when Tor and I are in town, you shall come and see us, and we will go shopping together, and to the opera and the park and everywhere. I believe you’ll get to like it so much, when once you’re settled, that you would never care to come back any more; and you’ll wonder how it ever was that you were happy at Ladywell.’ Phil and Tor, in a good-natured way, tried with Maud to comfort the distressed damsels: and at the last they did go away somewhat cheered. Lewis was living in London, and he would probably be a well-to-do man in time; and, altogether, the rising generation of the Belassis family felt that there might be brighter days in store for them yet. ‘Well, I’m glad they’ve gone away in better spirits, poor things!’ said Maud, after the final adieu, made the very day of the journey to London. ‘I am sorry for those two, because it isn’t their fault; but somehow one can never feel _interested_ in Matilda and Bertha.’